The mission of the Air Force is like a highly complex machine. Each piece of the machine is vital to it operating successfully. The E-9A Widget is a very small, yet highly important piece to that machine.

Arnold Engineering Development Complex engineers at the National Full Scale Aerodynamics Complex assisted in recent testing of sub-scale parachutes for the next mission of the Orion spacecraft, Exploration Mission-1.

DOD photograph by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta delivers remarks during a ceremony to recognize the Pentagon’s 9/11 employees at the Pentagon, Sept. 11, 2012. President Barack Obama, commander in chief of the nation’s armed forces, led a remembrance ceremony today at the Pentagon Memorial, 11 years to the day since terrorists…

Navy photograph Navy and Insitu personnel lift the RQ-21A Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System on to launcher in preparation for flight at Naval Air Station China Lake, Calif., Sept. 10. The Navy successfully launched its newest small unmanned aircraft without using a runway Sept. 10 at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif. A little…

NASA Television will provide live coverage of events surrounding three International Space Station crew members who are scheduled to end four months on the orbiting laboratory with a landing in Kazakhstan Sept. 16. Expedition 32 Flight Engineer Joe Acaba of NASA and Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin of the Russian Federal Space…

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to demonstrate technologies for its Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar program. Designed to replace the current AN/TPS-75 radar systems, 3DELRR will be the primary Air Force ground-based, long-range radar for detecting airborne threats. The pre-engineering and manufacturing development contract, valued at $34.7 million, will last 15…

The watchdog for U.S. spending in Afghanistan says lax accountability in a $1.1 billion program supplying fuel to the Afghan National Army needs “immediate attention” before control of the program is turned over to the Kabul government in less than four months. There’s no proof the fuel is actually being used by Afghan security forces…

Courtesy photograph Senior Airmen Mike Malarsie and Bradley Smith pose for a photo during their Afghanistan deployment. An improvised explosive device attack mortally wounded Smith and injured Malarsie Jan. 3, in Afghanistan. The two tactical airlift control party Airmen were assigned to the 10th Air Support Operations Squadron at Fort Riley, Kansas. Dressed in a…

Thousands of heroes died during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, many while helping others in the chaos around them, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today during a remembrance service at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. Dempsey took the stage with President Barack Obama…

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Pushing the Boundaries of Propelling Deep Space Missions

Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center are advancing the propulsion system that will propel the first ever mission to redirect an asteroid for astronauts to explore in the 2020s. NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission will test a number of new capabilities, like advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), needed for future astronaut expeditions into deep space, including to Mars.
The Hall thruster is part of an SEP system that uses 10 times less propellant than equivalent chemical rockets. In a recent test, engineers from Glenn and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, using a Glenn vacuum chamber to simulate the space environment, successfully tested a new, higher power Hall thruster design, which is more efficient and has longer life. “We proved that this thruster can process three times the power of previous designs and increase efficiency by 50 percent,” said Dan Herman, Electric Propulsion Subsystem lead.
Hall thrusters trap electrons in a magnetic field and use them to ionize the onboard propellant. The magnetic field also generates an electric field that accelerates the charged ions creating an exhaust plume of plasma that pushes the spacecraft forward. This method delivers cost-effective, safe and highly efficient in-space propulsion for long duration missions. In addition to propelling an asteroid mission, this new thruster could be used to send large amounts of cargo, habitats and other architectures in support of human missions to Mars.
Image Credit: NASA
Michelle M. Murphy (Wyle Information Systems, LLC) Read More

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